(narrator) in north india, there's also a highly formalized method of transmitting musical knowledge from teacher to disciple. students learn directly by imitating what their teacher sings or plays. traditionally, music students used to live in the house of their teachers or gurus, where they performed chores and received daily instruction. this master/disciple tradition continues today in a modified form. (spiegel) in india, it's called the guru-sishya parampara-- the teacher/student tradition-- where the student treats his teacher likes he's next to god. my musical hero was alla rakha who i had listened to on many recordings. i had no money, but i would go and meet him and sleep on the floor of his hotel and take care of errands and help out with driving, cooking, shopping, cleaning, anything. and when he felt like it, he would teach me. these lessons were not formal. he never wrote anything down for me. in fact, i never sat in front of him with drums. he only would recite compositions to me, and i was expected to remember them and, at a later time, write them down. (das gupta) in